


We deserve a soft epilogue

by SerialKillerQueen



Series: The Mind Flayer's Gift [14]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Epilogue, Family Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Happy Ending, Light-Hearted, M/M, Multi, Several of the characters are in the background, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-27 12:30:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20407792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerialKillerQueen/pseuds/SerialKillerQueen
Summary: We are good people and we've suffered enough.Epilogue to 'The Mind Flayer's Gift' verse, set three years after the end of the previous fic!





	We deserve a soft epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> Stranger Things and its characters do not belong to me. All rights go to their respective owners.

"We're gonna be late if you don't hurry!"

His little sister getting her license is rapidly proving to be a nightmare for him, she has even more free reign to just show up and start... this.

"We're almost ready shitbird! Calm down!"

Honestly Steve spends more time on his hair now than he does, so he isn't taking the blame for any of this. 

"If we're late Will and Robin are gonna flip!" 

Fuck's sake.

"Steve! Move it pretty boy before at least 3 people have a conniption!"

_Weren't you... warned... about this?_

He rolls his eyes. Like that's going to make either of them rush getting ready? 

A faint annoyed/amused huff sounds in his head, at least they're still entertaining to his powerful monster of a "room mate."

_"Billy! Steve!"_

Less entertaining to Max.

The Wheelers' house is officially packed, the entire party is here, plus Johnathan, Nancy, Robin, and Joyce and Hopper who are upstairs being nauseatingly adorable, (he hears a mocking hum in his head, he's pretty sure it translates to "hypocrite") and taking advantage of the quiet. 

El is sitting beside Max, Mike on her other side, her head on his shoulder, Lucas is to the other side of Max (he gives him a lazy wave), Dustin is standing up and moving to hug Steve (he'll probably hug him too and he'll act like it bugs him, some things never change), Will smiles at them from his position near the board, Robin is setting up... he's not sure, something to do with their fucking nerd game, and Nancy and Johnathan are alternating talking to the kids and working on something related to their latest story.

"Hey dingus and dingus's boyfriend and children! I'll have you all know me and Will worked hard on this campaign so I expect everyone to _pay attention_ and there better be no making out! You know who you are!" 

He thinks they all know Robin is Serious with a capital 'S' when she talks like that, and they all bow to her glare pretty quickly.

It's rare they can all be in one place at one time these days, the party is going off to college, (Max is debating if she can find somewhere in California and if Lucas will go with her, she mentioned it to him already, looking for his advice he thinks), Nancy and Johnathan are moving out of Hawkins, Steve has found a job right outside of the city limits, and he's been debating actually going to college himself. They'll see where they go from there (it'll be together, where ever they end up). 

But they all make every effort they can to make sure they get together several times a year, it takes some planning around various jobs and other commitments, but that's okay.

Family makes sure they're there for you.

Damn... they've really turned him into a sap haven't they?

**Author's Note:**

> I really wish I knew a more eloquent way to handle this one tbh. I knew all the ideas of what I wanted to do here but I couldn't quite find a way to fit them into my usual style, there's a lot of what is essentially exposition going. I've only ever done one other epilogue and I kind of had the same problem, with it being to saccharine and such, I always intended on a happy ending though. I may edit this at some point to try and make it flow better! I also had to drop a little reference to indicate that Lucas and Billy are on at least okay terms now (as are Billy and MF, 3 years is a long time and I never intended on getting rid of him). I'm not sure it would fit to have Johnathan and Nancy be reporters again but... I feel like that job suits their characters and arc so. (I also love the headcanon of Max being a Cali baby as much as Billy).
> 
> Things that couldn't directly fit into this fic but are canon to this verse; Hopper and Joyce are engaged, if Nancy and Johnathan aren't it won't be long. Billy wears all his incredibly open shirts again, he's not ashamed of his scars anymore (besides he's still got great abs!) MF is surprisingly close with El due to their ability to psychically connect. Erica is totally still around I just can't write her and couldn't think of a way to reference her, but she's part of the party too! They don't play DnD all the time but they like to on the occasion they get back together (I feel like S3 tried to make it almost seem like DnD is kids' stuff when I know plenty of adults who play it). In case it was confusing, Robin and Will worked on the campaign together but he's DM. Inspiration for that was from 'You're Ripped At Every Edge (But You're A Masterpiece)' by dorothycanfly!
> 
> Shout outs: dropout_ninja, foxgirlontherun, CampionSayn, SeptSapphire, SantuariosYue, greeninkaddress, Franny, goldenbilly, and heyguys for any and every comment you made! Know I cherish every one (and link loads of them to my friends to squeal about) and they encourage me so much!  
To every person who kudos and bookmarked thank you to you too! Know I DO recognize your names (I'm looking at you awkwardblogger, billyisaBOTTOM, sensorium, 1hallynn, LycanGrrl, godhasdisconnected, BalladsOfStrangers, LucienMikaelson, gurlygirl23, Movietalker, Me_and_my_fandoms, Shibani, Dmariane, Sionsidhe9, WinterReadingerDixon67, aPreTtyLittleLIAR, mAadMax, Ghost47, awkward_mitch, writerblender, and shadowlady!) and your kudos warm my heart.
> 
> I wanted to also add a little bit of a story here. Some years ago I started to make my first real foray into fanfic, and I sent it privately to a former friend, the former friend critiqued it to hell and back and pretty much destroyed my confidence (there's no inherent problem with critique, the way they went about it was the issue, it was very short and their critique was longer than the fic itself, I did ask for critique and I shouldn't have, I was VERY emotionally fragile at the time and very immature myself, I was dealing with a lot) in my ability to write. From that point on I didn't touch fanfic, never published that fic (and never will) and wrote myself off. It wasn't until this year and with some nudging from my dear friend Brigi that I got the courage to write again, and to publish that writing here. Stranger Things wasn't the fandom I started writing for but I've gotten some of the best feedback and engagement here and it's really been good for me. I'm still pretty shaky on confidence but it's getting better all the time, you guys help with that more than you know, every one of you!


End file.
